Trev -- I assume you are the same "squiggs" who posted re: CDN working holiday visas for France. I think you said you are now teaching or have in the recent past taught in Japan.

I am also a CDN who has taught in Japan and France. Only difference is that I was lucky enough to acquire a British passport through my father, so that smoothed my path considerably. I know that it is very possible and almost a neccesity of Japanese law to find your employer before going to Japan. If you are serious about making the move to France one thing you must realize is that you will never get a job by applying from outside of the country (very unlike Japan). Even with my Brit passport and teaching experience I had no choice but go to France to find the work which eventually came in spades. If you are a competent teacher and you are legally entitled to work (potentially through a working holiday in your case) in France, at your age and with your (I assume) "American" accent (sorry, that's how they label us!) there's no reason why you wouldn't find abundant work in many locations in France.

I say all this from my own experience but if there is someone, or someone who knows someone else, who has been hired for an English teaching job from outside of France please step forward & tell us about it. I have heard about it in scientific and other fields but never for ELT.

If you are a competent teacher and you are legally entitled to work (potentially through a working holiday in your case) in France, at your age and with your (I assume) "American" accent (sorry, that's how they label us!) there's no reason why you wouldn't find abundant work in many locations in France.

The previous writer is correct: no-one is going to hire you until youīre physically in a country (with the exception of Asia). You might try this though: look up pagesjaunes.fr/ (French yellow pages) and type in "ecole, anglais" and the region (start off with Paris) and youīll get a load of numbers and addresses and possibly email addresses. I have to say though, if what the previous writer mentioned is the case and you are American, you have very little hope of making a living wage in France - they are extremely strict on working papers, all over France. If you have European grandparents you have a chance, otherwise you might start looking around in Japan for a nice European girl / boy to get hitched with...? I hate to be pessimistic, but itīs just not a country for Americans without working papers: itīs theoretically possible to get sponsored by a school, but they already have a good supply of teachers from the UK and Ireland and that combined with the anti-American feeling there means there is very little demand for US accents.

I don't know where you are currently, Squiggs, but the fact is things may very well fall into place in France ONCE YOU ARE HERE. There is a great deal of truth in all the warnings the other posters have stated, but there are also a great deal of Americans living in France. I will concede, however, that it is not easy, and you will need an enormous amount of determination, perseverence, and patience to succeed here. If you have friends here, as I did, that could aid you tremendously. It's also imperative that you speak French.

I'm American, orignally came here as a student, am now a teaching assistant (there is supposedly a similar program for Canadians), plus I have quite a bit of private work and translation projects. Through contacts, I have another job offer starting July. I also managed to find a quaint studio in the 8eme (posh!) in exchange for a few hours of work and a few euros. The studio I really don't even need, as I spend most of my time at the apartment of my French boyfriend.

The moral of my story is that the privates, translation work, contacts, studio, or French boyfriend would have never happened had I not been in France already. Yes, your story here could end up an utter nightmare, or you may be able to create your own opportunities. It's a gamble, but so are most worthy things in life.

My comment about the American accent was about the fact that in some regions an American accent is sometimes preferred over an an English accent - I found this to be true in Asia. As for anti-American feeling among the French, I, and several American colleagues, found this most definitely to be true, with a good many students actively avoiding American teachers and seeking UK teachers with English accents. I donīt condone this in the least, I was simply mentioning what I had experienced there. Please save your bold-type for something that deserves it Rogan. NMB is right when she says that if you really want to go there, then go and something may well come up, but I am just trying to urge caution for a US national moving to France - itīs really tough for someone with no working papers and it can be shockingly expensive to live there if you donīt have a job.

Well, looks like things have stoked up on this thread! I wonder if the original poster has even been back to check in to all the good views suddenly forthcoming.

For Buraimi, my mention of squiggs' age is from his reference in an another recent post of his in the French Forum, ie that he's currently 29 and was looking at the possibility of doing a working holiday visa for France (thru the CDN consulate). I think it's safe to say that's a good age to find work, no?

I think I lost Moore with my "CDN" abbreviation. That stands for "CA-NAY-DEE-AN", which in the scheme of things in France gets grouped all too often with those "A-MAR-CANS" in terms of "accent" (that is once you get beyond the French reflex of associating "CDN" with Quebec -- want to have some fun, ask any French person to name countries where English is spoken by the majority & I guarantee you Canada will come last most of the time, if it even comes up at all!). Good advice by Moore however on the Yellow Pages route -- I posted the same advice a while back in the General Europe Forum.

It's funny how this whole accent issue even keeps factoring in to ELT job hiring. Another experiment I've often done in France is to ask my new students during our first encounter to identify my accent. Oddly (or even alarmingly!) most think I'm "British". I have been hired by school/ training organization directors precisely because of my "American" accent so what does all this tell you??!!

Funny also how the mere mention of those USAers brought in a whole "anti-American" barrage to the thread. That was nicely squelched by Rogan, who as always has a firm handle on the French market and so accurately puts it down to economics vs. ethnicity.

Finally, NMB, I don't think there was that much pessimism in the posts before yours, just reality. And besides, your message was essentially the same as the rest of us -- to work in France you gotta get your butt over there if you want to be hired. You, like everyone else, are 100% correct on that account.

I had a quick look and there are lots of British and USA type real schools in France which would probably have some way of avoiding the need for a work permit, and might also accept a preliminary contact prior to arrival in France.

My guess is that such schools would be more interested in real (qualified) teachers rather than just TEFL qualified people - but let's avoid that particular arguement, should we?

Wow!! What a difference a few days make!! I had checked this thread a few days after the original post and ....nada... but after re-checking today, it seems that there has been an abundance of activity here that I have been completely missing out on!
Thanks to everyone for their perspective on living/working in France and initial job acquisition. As has been pointed out and regrettably expected, it would, at the onset, appear that in fact you DO have to physically be in the country in order to procure employment at a school.
As my fellow Canuck go2guy had mentioned in a previous post, routine hiring practices in Japan for language positions is decidedly more lax as a great deal of potential employers realize certain restricitions (namely proximity to Japan) and being able to show up in person for an interview as is routinely the process of gaining employment.
I did hear previously about les pages jaunes. Je dirais bien que c'est un choix, mais un choix quand meme penible!
Thanks Rogan for the final reply and contained web links. I will check into that and see if theres anything viable for me.
My contract will expire here in Osaka and I was just looking at a sejour en Provence, or something to that effect before returning back to Canada.
While I don' t currently have a teaching certification, I believe that given an opportunity at a school in France, coupled with my fairly successful experience gained at teaching at college level for the past few years, and facility with French, I would likely not find it overly difficult to get employment whether they wanted me to speak Canadian, American, British, heck, I could even throw in un peu de patois, dis unu fi 'ear mi breddren dem!
But seriously, thanks to all again and just to confirm...although being a moderately costly place to look for work, there may in fact be an opportunity for me to get a job with some modest effort if I make the trip and hit the pavement? I am not much of a gambler but I fully realize that its quite unlikely for me to obtain a position without physically being in France.
Pas vrai?

Le voila -- welcome back squiggs! I would say you have correctly processed the info offered by everyone in this thread. I have no doubt you would find work in France if you were to go there BUT it will also depend on your visa status. Have you applied for the working holiday visa? Without some form of permission to legally work in France you will find it next to impossible to get hired by anyone. Good luck!